Unforeseeable

It was just in the previous piece (The World Of Art), where I mentioned of my vision of Art and how it was that of an alluring one. The fact that I not only see it for what it currently is, but I intensify its beauty. Basically Art is one of the very few things I view with a half-glass-full attitude (could probably be my most respected trait, given a lot of people prefer optimism and positive thinking). I say it's one of the very few things because it isn't the only thing. This is when I shift my attention away from the subjective and highly-detailed creations by man and towards the non-spatial and ever so confusing measurement of age and alteration; time. More specifically that of which awaits us. The road that lies ahead. The time yet to come. Something we always believe to have strong knowledge of through multiple studies and history books, but remain struggling to answer with great accuracy. I speak of course about tomorrow and the future.

My positive vision of the future is more common among people compared to Art as the future is something that comes into mind more often. It's something we are naturally chasing after. We are always wanting for things to look better for us as time goes by. Is that a good thing? It is... when it's us believing, hoping and fighting for such a thing. But what about 'thinking' the future will be better than now? We at times do this, when the truth is that we shouldn't. It isn't right to be looking at the future as being all good things, because it's basically a way of ignoring the bad stuff and allowing for it to hit harder. If we end up acting like something bad isn't at all a possibility, we create some disbelief for ourselves. And then if what we deem as impossible occurs, this disbelief just adds on to the pain making things seem worse than what they are. I have experienced this sort of pain before. Which is why I now fight hard to put a stop to this way of thinking? Seeing a better future as a guarantee is also us making a prediction. One without much of a basis. We are turning our backs on the most important fact of them all. That being we don't have much of a clue as to what the future holds. In fact, this is a problem with most predictions in general.

Here is something new you will learn about me. Another behaviour that I've adopted only recently. Whenever I come across somebody claiming to know a certain thing will happen, I just don't take them as seriously anymore. There are times when I even wish to reply, demanding them to prove it or show some calculations. Most times I'm assuming they can't do either because they come up with these crazy predictions from the top of their heads. Instead of reasoning, a few of these sort of people allow for their emotional bias to have a say, believing it will help with the accuracy. There is this troll for instance (Unfathomable) going around that hates my football team, saying that they are certainties to go back-to-back in finishing dead last on the ladder next year. Now while it can happen, is it a certainty? This is supposed to be a rhetorical question because we all well and truly know the answer here. Remember that this particular person 'hates' my team. He has been laughing about them and has even gone far as to insult the athletes that play for the club. How much of his prediction do you think is based on emotional bias?

When it comes to me making predictions, I don't ever expect to be right. It's rather a game for me that I enjoy playing. I like taking a stab at thinking something will be the case and seeing how far off from it I end up. This happens most when watching my favourite television shows or seeing my football team play. Predictions are merely guesses, with some tending to have more value when based on proper logic and reasoning. So when I look at how seriously other people take them and the way they attack others for theirs, I like to get a good laugh out of it. It's because these people are blind to the truth (or that they just refuse to accept it). The truth being that they are nothing but boastful clods that can't predict the future whatsoever. I don't believe anybody can accurately predict something will happen with knowledge, whether it involves them or not. And there is a pretty good reason for that. Surrounds both tomorrow and beyond. Let's start with tomorrow shall we?

I guess with me there can be some hidden hypocrisy when it comes to pretending something will be the case. I now and then say stupid things like 'this will happen' or 'I'm certain to fail'. These things, however are usually said for the sake of showing off my pessimistic attitude. I naturally tend to think a lot of things don't go right for me, so I say this stuff with the hope that the opposite will occur. Of course it doesn't always work out for me and the behaviour might seem ridiculous, but it's a habit of mine that is hard to break.

 What do we know about 'tomorrow'? Well we know for starters it will become 'today', and based off every other day that has come and gone, we can safely presume that 'tomorrow' will become just another one of them. A day full of happenings, sounds and busy people around us as usual. But that is actually as far as we can go. Why is that? The answer is pretty obvious. We're well aware of how the concept of time is shared by everyone. The speed of it is also roughly similar for everybody as well. However, the way time shares itself is not so much it splitting itself into pieces for all, but multiplying itself. The fact that we all get our very own complete 'time' and not a piece of it. Which means we all get our own days, our own weeks, our own months and our own years. This includes our own 'today' and our own 'tomorrow'. All of which are fairly concurrent. The only difference between our own times is how we go about using them and how we alone see parts of them. 

You're likely to be very familiar with the idea of certain people sharing how a day has been 'great' for them. A better example would be their reflection of a finishing year when the new one comes knocking a few hours away. Like for instance with me, 2018 has been somewhat disappointing despite a month left to go. Things haven't been going my way and I was left fighting a lot of troubles which included the moving of house (saying goodbye to the one I grew up in for all of my 21 years of life) and the mid-year existential crisis that went close to breaking me. But while 2018 has not been so friendly with me, many others could've had the 'best' year of their lives. It all goes back to how we spend our time and whether or not the way we spend it pays off for us. These people would've used their time very well and perhaps they've had a lot of luck on their side too. If we use our own time well, we're more likely than not going to be left extremely satisfied with ourselves. It's the same case when it comes to 'tomorrow'.

The type of day 'tomorrow' becomes, mainly depends on our actions and our choices as we individual beings are mostly in control of it. We live our own lives and create our own experiences. Even when we are assigned tasks by others, we're left to make and take our own approaches to them. It is why the same tasks we do can turn out different to some extent each day. Think of it this way. You have a job that is both dangerous and repetitive. There are days when you could be careful, feeling good and end up well ahead of schedule. Then there could be a day when you feel pressure, struggle to keep your mind focus and suddenly injure yourself. Or there could even be a day that's mixed (when you're feeling good up to a point when you end up making a mistake). One thing all of these examples have in common is that you are who is responsible for them. How they come about are determined by how we prepare ourselves for them along with the state or mood we are in during the time.

We are all responsible for how we use our time and how we look back on a day's work. However, we are not 'entirely' responsible. If you've come around to this blog frequently and seen a few of my other pieces (such as Very Superstitious), you would know that I believe in a thing called 'luck'. I've even hinted it just earlier here. Luck can play a small role in how our days turn out for us. But what is luck mostly here, and how does it affect us? The answer is simply the people around you. How they spend their time can rub off on us a little. Their troubles can often lead to our own. It's like somebody having a car accident before we get to work. This car accident slows down the traffic. We're not responsible for the crash, but somebody else's mistake is still affecting us. It makes us late for work. And we couldn't plan to leave the house earlier because we had no idea this was going to happen. When we have no clue or control of external matters, it then becomes a case of good or bad luck for us. There is also another type of luck which can include our car breaking down on any given day, which I consider to be downright 'cruel' luck. Then there are good fortunes that can also rub off on us like our work boss being in a very good mood. Luck further solidifies my point that our tomorrows remain unclear. We're only left to do the best we can, making good of our days whilst considering the possibility of any obstacles.

If there is one behaviour I share with so many people, it's the firm belief of good times ahead. A loose yet solid prediction that the next day will end up being better for me. Not only that, I hope for it and I try hard to make my prediction come true. There is no blaming anybody for sharing this behaviour, as it's common for a reason. It just makes sense. I mean who wouldn't finish one day, believing the next can become more enjoyable? Who wouldn't hope and want for better? This regularly comes to mind after a bad day. But it can even be a case for a great day. Setting the bar very high or even attempting to improve on it. Despite how impossible it may seem, we are always striving for everyday to be the best. It's one of the few steps in living life to the fullest. But there hides that forever existing chance we love ignoring. The chance of a new day being worse. I tend to believe ignoring this chance can lead to more disappointment. If we at least acknowledge the possibility each day, we then encourage ourselves to put in greater effort. There won't be that many bad days coming from this.

Next we have the more distant future. The less subjective aspect of time that focuses on the many years from now. Whether it be five, fifty, or even five million years long after we're gone, we sit wondering what life is going to be like when that time arrives. Will it be utopian or dystopian? Will it be as certain fiction depicts it? Will anybody be able to find out more about this? The way I see it, nobody knows. It's likely to remain that way for quite some time. In a way, it tells me that we're in the process of creating most of this future. That's why theories and scientific studies are not always met with complete support. Along with these have been many predictions of the world's end (all having come and gone) with us still alive and well. Even the Bureau of Meteorology doesn't always get the weather for tomorrow right. I mean if we had the power to foresee future events, you'd think most of us would go to great lengths in finding out next week's lotto numbers for the jackpot prize. I suppose it can be a good thing not knowing as sometimes what we don't know won't hurt us. But the unknown has a way of leaving us somewhat unsettled. Especially when it can go both ways. That's right! There is not even a guarantee that good fortunes await.

I'd love for all the coming moments to be sunshine and rainbows. I think we all would. However, darkness and discomfort will forever linger and there is no telling how they will approach us. We could be forced into wearing a computer chip under our skin for identification purposes. Our experiments on living creatures as well as genetic modification could end up creating some form of threat to our lives. And despite more than seven billion people finding space on Earth, much of the planet's land and sea still remains rarely identified or visited. Perhaps there could be dangers already here that are yet to be revealed. What about fiction? Ever watched a sci-fi movie or even a particular horror movie and wondered whether similar ideas could take place in real life? I'm not just talking natural disasters or apocalypses here. What about AI takeovers, unsightly extra-terrestrial life forms, shortages or even irreversible outbreaks of incurable diseases? I don't wish to sound negative here or anything, but I can't rule anything out. We humans are an amazingly clever species of life. But what we don't know is whether or not our current abilities can lead to bringing forth some very unpleasant circumstances during the times ahead.

This sort of thinking isn't exactly common. The questions rarely come to us and whenever we find ourselves pondering them, they don't hang around for long. Suppose it's why I link this topic to Science more than Art. After all I don't call it 'seeking reason' for nothing. Science is all about putting in an effort. It's us more often than not chasing the answers. And there is every chance the answers won't satisfy us. That's due to the fact that us humans as a collective, are still yet to figure out much of the scientific world. Science is existence without the decoration. It's the structure, the nature and everything that's very hard to explain. These questions about the future can be like us interacting with a stranger without getting to know them. We're experimenting with an entire body while some parts still remain either untouched or uncertain. There's still those bigger questions asking us if we have the backing knowledge and if we know what we are dealing with.

So presuming the top scientists of the world dispute these ideas of what the future could hold, there is forever that small chance they are wrong. As I said earlier, reality has its limits right now. And given our knowledge depends on this reality, that too will have limits. It means that such questions as these remain somewhat rational. Can an AI takeover happen? Would we possibly find a world light years away that's more advanced than ours? Will we find a world less advanced? Could we discover plants and/or creatures unknown to us outside of Earth? All are still open to interpretation, and could just about stay like that for many more years to come. That's unless we already know what both we and our current technology are capable of, which would be near impossible because we are always learning something new. So I have a hard time believing anyone who knows what the future holds because there are countless possibilities. It is just a matter of which one will come to pass as we reach closer to it.

Whichever way we look at it, one thing we can all agree on is that it's an intriguing topic of discussion. Right now, we are getting small glimpses of next-level technology, with gaming and everyday appliances going one better year by year. And there is always something that catches our attention here, making us think 'Wow! I'm amazed'. But for me, this peek into the future of technology has led to scarier prospects. Perhaps I am worrying about nothing. It may be that these ideas never come into play or will do so long after all current lives have passed. Then again I can't sit around depending on this to be the case, as the evolution of both knowledge and creativity appear to be travelling at an exponential rate. The last fifty or so years of existence sort of proves this. No matter how far we are talking in regards to the future, there are little to no guarantees. One just never knows what is going to be around the corner. It's unforeseeable.

Travis "TJ" James